Celebrating a football rivalry

Monday

Sep 13, 2010 at 12:01 AM

By the time this column is published, U.S. Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa., along with everyone else interested in college football, will know the outcome of Saturday's Alabama-Penn State football game in Tuscaloosa.Shelby and Casey last week announced “a friendly wager” on the nationally televised game at expanded Bryant-Denny Stadium.Shelby said he wagered a Bates Turkey Farm smoked turkey and Casey bet ice cream from Berkey Creamery on the Penn State University campus. “The University of Alabama and Penn State have two storied programs with a rivalry forged by historic moments in college football,” Shelby said in a statement.He said the 1979 Sugar Bowl goal-line stand is “entrenched” in Alabama lore and is “remembered in pictures on the walls of restaurants and living rooms across the state.”Shelby, who has two degrees from the University of Alabama, said Crimson Tide fans also have deep respect for Nittany Lions Coach Joe Paterno. Responded Casey, “It's going to feel like Thanksgiving has come early when I get to enjoy that smoked turkey in celebration of Penn State's big win this weekend.”Casey boldly predicted that the Nittany Lions, led by true freshman quarterback Rob Bolden, “will have no problem knocking off the defending national champions in the prime-time lights of Bryant-Denny Stadium.”

State school board member Ethel Hall, who is retiring this year, is the author of a book about her remarkable journey through once-segregated Alabama to earning a doctorate and leading the state school board.“My Journey, a memoir of the first African American to preside over the Alabama board of education,” was four years in the telling, Hall said.“It starts off about my life,” she said. “I did not intend to write it. I thought I didn't have anything to say. But (former state Superintendent) Ed Richardson suggested I write it.”State Superintendent Joseph Morton showed the book at last week's K-12 state school board.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. has been endorsed by the Alabama Police Benevolent Association, his campaign said last week.“I am deeply grateful for the endorsement of the Alabama Police Benevolent Association,” Folsom said. “I have worked very hard to earn the trust of the law enforcement community and I am proud of the great working relationship I have with the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to keep us all safe.”Folsom, the incumbent, faces Republican nominee Kay Ivey in the Nov. 2 general election. Ivey is the current state treasurer.Folsom's campaign said Alabama Police Benevolent Association has more than 4,000 members who work in federal, state, county or municipal governments.

Is the Republican Party going negative by alleging that Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ron Sparks has gone negative in his campaign against GOP opponent Robert Bentley? The state Republican Party said Sparks violated his campaign pledge to remain positive with his campaign ad of last week.The party said Sparks aired a negative television ad attacking Robert Bentley. (The ad says Bentley opposes Sparks' proposed lottery for education.)“While it's not unusual that a Democrat would break their promise to Alabamians, it takes some arrogance to do it less than two months after you made that promise,” said Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, chairman of the Alabama GOP. A Sparks' spokesman said pointing out differences in positions is legitimate debate.

“Come by,” Gov. Bob Riley told state school board member Ella Bell, who said she has been kept out of the loop on a proposed consolidation of two state job programs. “You don't return my calls as much as I do.”

The Alabama Democratic Party has started a community blog for news and opinions from Democratic campaigns this year.At www.fightforalabama.com, the website has biographies of state House and Senate candidates and space for users to post blogs about events and volunteer stories, the party said. “Alabama Democrats are launching this blog site as a one-stop shop for those voters seeking information about our candidates and their campaigns,” party Chairman Joe Turnham said.

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